The Indian Railways has planned to cancel over 650 passenger trains to allow for faster movement of coal carriages as the nation scrambles to replenish depleting inventories at power plants in a bid to avoid a full-blown power crisis. Protests against power cuts erupted outside Punjab Power Minister Harbhajan Singh’s residence on Friday.
Sources from the Railways told CNBC-TV18 that 657 passenger trains, including 500 mail and express train trips and 148 commuter train trips, are to be cancelled to prioritise movement of coal rakes. The Railways has also planned to increase the passage of coal rakes over the next two months.
“The measure is temporary and passenger services will be restored as soon as the situation normalizes,” said Gaurav Krishna Bansal, an executive director at Indian Railways, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. The state-run operator is trying to minimize the time it takes to move coal to power plants, he said.
Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday that as the whole country is facing power issues due to coal shortage, and there is no back up, the better solution to tackle the crisis would be for the Centre to provide more coal. He said power cannot be stored and there is not enough coal in Delhi for the next 21 days.
Jain held an emergency meeting on the shortage of coal at the Delhi Secretariat on Thursday and wrote a letter to the Centre asking for adequate coal to the thermal power plants.
Disruption in power supply from Dadri and Unchahar thermal power plants may hit 24-hour power supply to Delhi Metro, hospitals and other important institutions in the national capital, the Delhi government said. According to the daily coal report of the National Power Portal, there is acute shortage of coal at many power stations of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
Bihar’s power minster Bijendra Prasad Yadav also raised the issue of coal shortage on Friday. “There is a shortage of around 1000 MW but this will be solved in a day or two,” he said adding that talks also happened with the Central government.
However, Union Power Ministry sources told News18 if states are facing a power crisis it is because of coal supply issues. “States have not release payment for coal leading to this crisis. There is no problem with power plants… They continue to function.”
The Delhi government has informed that only one day’s coal stock is left at the Dadri-II power plant, Unchahar power plant has two days’ stock, three-and-a-half days’ stock is left in Kahalgaon, Farakka has five days’ stock, while Jhajjar (Aravalli) has seven to eight days’ stock left with it.
While coal crisis is threatening to impact power supply, Delhi and many other states are facing severe heatwave conditions. The Met department has said the mercury can rise to up to 46-degree Celsius in Delhi. A scorching summer is driving demand for coal, which helps generate about 70% of the country’s electricity.
NTPC’s Dadri-II and Jhajjar (Aravalli) power plants were established primarily to meet the power requirements of Delhi, but there is little stock left in these plants.
According to the Delhi government, 1,751 MW of electricity is supplied daily from Dadri, Unchahar, Kahalgaon, Farakka and Jhajjar power plants to Delhi. The maximum supply — 728 MW — comes from Dadri, while 100 MW comes from Unchahar.
Therefore, disruptions in power supply from these two major thermal power stations may lead to severe cuts in 24-hour power supply to Delhi Metro, hospitals and various other essential institutions.
Jain said the Delhi government is closely monitoring the situation and making all possible efforts so that people do not face power crisis in some areas of the national capital.
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